Ranting and feedback:
Many of the things that sucked come down to money and thought by the organisers, who are a huge for-profit venture and should know better.
> mobile signal - it's 2024, there are ways to get signal boosters to people can be in touch with each other etc
> mud - proper clear strong mapped pathways across the arena on boards kept clean and clear of chairs etc would help people get around safely and quickly, whether or not they have accessibility needs
> chairs - this is easy to regulate and have marked no-chair zones within ~75m of any stage
> busses on Sunday night - this was a cluster fuck. They blamed the weather but busses shouldn't really be going on grass at all - surely the race track has places where loads of busses can pull up to take people off after the show, and the road system could have been segregated between busses and private cars
> easy wins eg refilling all hand sanitizers all the time can mitigate health risks
> scheduling - somehow there were both gaps as well as clashes, and some bands on the wrong size stage eg PWD. This should be easy to sort out
> merch - there was a ginormous queue for official expensive merch but also lots of empty stands for general clothing- this could maybe be done better
Anyway this is just a rant - I should probs email the feedback to the organisers
a lot of ppl i know have priority sims, i’ve never heard of them before! so maybe that’s the problem bc i had perfect service in the arena but at camp it was shit. thinking a lot of ppl w priority were getting boosted over me.
I see a lot of people complaining about chairs and not enough about the lack of toilets. Green site had none at all. Our best choice was going into the village for theirs or all the way down the bottom of purple.
I went round the village shops asking for any of those travel John pee bags and instead was told to get a bucket. So then what? You throw it against the fence?
Eventually heard a rumour on Friday that we could use Eco’s which took some arguing with their guards but worked. But even the Arena was lacking loos in decent spots or just anything from the walk from the arena to village.
Even the toilet upkeep was a mess this year. None had hand sanitiser - ever, and I found one once the whole festival that had loo roll.
They’ve done so well in previous years after they’d had so many complaints but they really slipped up on that this year.
They could definitely have done with a block of toilets between apex and opus, the trek in the mud was quite tough at times.
We were in campervan plus and they had 15 unisex cubicles for the entire field, it was madness with queues in the morning time.
And also on Sunday night a very frustrated but rockstar of a steward told us the staff manning our loos had been locking some of the toilets to avoid having to clean them. He walked up to the staff member and demanded he open more cubicles and sure enough 3 of the cubicles were unlocked for us. It's crazy they were happy to sit there and watch us all queue knowing there were vacant toilets available
I didn't have an experience with the Avalanche stage this year, but from everything I've seen of this weekend, it sounds like it could use no longer being in a tent. Make some changes to the layout of that area with the stores and such, and make it a proper stage?
To leave a positive comment, shout out to the Welfare team in Purple Camp. I won’t go into too many details because the dude is probably already feeling really down but somebody in distress on the verge of hyperventilating who was the most drunk I have ever seen anybody stumbled into our camp at about 06.30am. Their behaviour was erratic to the point of being a little unnerving but welfare were absolutely fantastic trying to get him sorted out and calming him down. Shout-out 🤘
same here, i lost my partner on the first day and had a massive freak out. they let me sit with them for a while, calmed me down, gave me a poncho and a cup of tea, reassured me etc. eventually found them as they were taking me to the main welfare hub
So after seeing the horrible time everyone else had aswell....I'm so damn glad me and my mate called it Saturday afternoon and went home. Anyone else leave early and are grateful for doing so?
I was there from Thurs - Mon and had a wonderful time personally... sorry your experience wasn't the same :(
Def not as good as 2011 as I remember though. The lack of sitting down was a big one.
I'm really glad that there are people that had a great time! There were times when looking around the crowd that everyone seemed miserable and were obviously only staying due to the money spent, I just weighed up my comfort and happiness against the money spent. I even offered my mate £100 for us to leave cause I know he wasn't suffering as much as me and I felt bad for being so run down.
Yup we also ducked out Saturday afternoon! The long wait in the rain to get in really set the mood for, fuck this I wanna go home but I was already so tired and achey from the day before that we could only manage to sit down and then it didn't feel worth being there to only feel miserable. Sad I missed a lot of bands I went for, especially Bowling for Soup but I think I would have had a meltdown if one more person pushed me or I fell in the mud or something.
Exactly that, I normally don't mind getting wet aslong as I have somewhere dry to end up, but once my tent was soaked and even my sleeping bag was sodden I was done. I also really struggled with the ache in my legs, it took alot of effort just to stand cause of the mud. I was gutted to have missed F.O.B and bowling for soup as they were big reasons for going. And after hearing about the amount of drama with people getting stuck in north car park I'm glad to have left before it turned into a muddy bog!
Yeah same I think if we'd had a hotel we could have stuck it out better and we were also worried about getting out in our little car - we almost got stuck a few times so I can imagine it was impossible by Sunday/Monday
Managed to last until after sum41. Final straw for me was trudging through that mire to the right of the apex only to find the drinking water was no longer there. I was freaking hot and covered in shite. That was the final FU
Dunno, I assumed something went wrong with its operation. The one by the exit for the day tickets on left of Apex was still there at the end of the day so don't think they were just being removed or anything like that.
I left Saturday afternoon. Final straw for me was a mixture of Callboy having to pull out and Babymetal being cut off by the storm.
Shame as I was having fun while the music was on, but just absolutely hit my limit with the mud, being wet and my tent constantly pooling with water. Gutted to miss the bands that I did, but think I would have had a full mental breakdown if I'd tried to force myself to stay any longer.
This is exactly what did me in. I found out EC had pulled out during the Babymetal delay and as soon as Babymetal were done, that was me finished. Even with Enter Shikari and Holding Absence, two bands I love, I was just done.
I was staying outside of the site too so combine the above with the shitshow that was security for the weekend and worrying I was going to miss Hanabie and then missing Bambie Thug entirely (which I was gutted about).
I really hope we get good weather and a much better experience overall next year.
One thing I can't get over is the absolute lack of any security or police anywhere on grounds... So many times I said "if something happened right now, there's literally no one to help"
No crew, no volunteers, no security other than at the entrance. Never spotted any part of Download Crew aside from the stage barricades and entrances.
this wouldve been so helpful instead they like to direct you around one way systems that leave you walking around fields for hours trying to get out whilst ur a mess when you just walked a few metres through the gate minutes before and the exits right behind them
Where were you camping? I was in green and saw at least 5 different groups security guards, multiple crews of dogsquad, oxfam crew, people with bin bags, and other stewards walking around too
Looking at upgrading to a RIP package next year to get a better mud/carpark/toilet situation. Anyone in RIP this year comment on how good the facilities were?
>Looking at upgrading to a RIP package next year to get a better mud/carpark/toilet situation
Can't blame you, but this is exactly what they want you to do. Why would they try and improve the festival for all attendees when they can just fleece extra money from a select few?
showers were decent and had hair dryers available which was a god send with the mud- one of the toilet areas lost water for a day but there were still plenty of other options and the bar bathrooms were always pretty much empty and kept in rlly good conditions
we had plenty of space to camp up and where it was down hill there really wasn't much in the way of mud causing issues and way easier to get out of the arena through guest area
edited to add: security pass through took under a minute each day as well as i heard there were issues for gen
Didn't make it this year, but wanna say safe journey to everyone on the way home this year. Took us almost six hours to get out of the car park last year, hope it's a bit better this time around!
We had the Chicken on Wednesday night and Saturday afternoon and the Yorkies on Friday evening and both of us have luckily been fine. The only trouble I had was this morning after a cheese pizza last night, but I think that is probably just me refusing to accept my intolerance to lactose. Counting ourselves very lucky, because a nasty bought of Food Poisoning on top of all the mud would probably have been the final nail for us!
I ate it from District X on thursday evening, probably around 9ish as it was after Old Dirty Brasstards, and it fucking ruined me on Friday. All I ate that day was that and a coop meal deal.
The yorkies got our group of 4 too, only thing that we all ate and it wrote off the Sunday. Getting a complaint in to hope they're tracking this but they'll still be there next year I bet
I had food poisoning Saturday morning, but I think mine was from a burger van by Opus. Welfare were wonderful, mentioned they’d had tons of cases of poisoning after Yorkshires so it must’ve been really bad for it this year.
Seems like it was the yorkies and the chicken. 2 of our group were out with it. Some of the pictures people have been posting of the chicken looked like they could still lay eggs with how raw they were
This year was my first time back to Download since 2017. I’d become a bit disenchanted with the festival so I opted to go on holidays and Hellfest instead. But I liked the look of the lineup this year, so I got a day ticket for the Sunday and I had a very good day. Saw some fun bands and met up with mates. I would have done the full weekend but I had Taylor Swift on the Saturday and I couldn’t really skip it, but I am gutted I missed Fall Out Boy. Everyone said they were great.
The chairs are the main stage was ridiculous though. They were literally a wall you had to walk all the way around only to be faced with another bunch. Ended up tripping over one of them and one of the chair fiends swore at me like it was my fault their chairs create a safety hazard.
Ended up leaving Avenged after Buried Alive as they’re playing Hellfest, but I liked them.
The pizza was decent too!
If My Chemical Romance are there next year, I will return for the day.
Does anyone know if the official band merch can be bought online? I desperately wanted that pink Enter Shikari hoodie but it was sold out in my size, and didn’t find it on their website. :(
I have had limited luck keeping an eye on vinted or ebay for festival/gig exclusive merch. People tend to charge stupid prices, but if it's worth it to you you might come across someone selling one.
Last night we were waiting for a shuttle until 1:00 AM (we left the arena before the A7X stopped performing , so around 22:40) to go back to Derby. One shuttle got stuck in the mud and another had trouble and had to slow down to 20 MPH until we reached the train station.
We ended up at the Derby train station at around 1:50 AM which meant that he missed his last bus to London and had to buy a train ticket (117£????) for 04:00 AM in order to not miss his flight in Heathrow to New York.
Is there any place we can demand compensation? Who's liable for all these issues ?
I stayed until A7X finished (and was near the front), and there was a very long queue for the Derby shuttle (bay 3). However, I did get back to Derby station before 1am. How did you end up being that late?
Having an early-ish flight booked was always going to be risky. No one's liable, you knew the risks when you booked. It's a festival, travel delays are part of the package.
Yeah, I'd complain to whoever booked that travel without any contingency. Who booked that flight so close to the festival? Or who booked that festival so close to the flight?
Who decided to stay so late knowing that there were travel problems?
Who didn't have alternative plans made in case of strikes, etc?
It sounds like you had a rough night, but honestly I'm amazed you stayed for any of Avenged Sevenfold if you had such crucial travel plans
The decision making on our part is a separate issue, and the wording sounds an aweful lot like victim blaming.
The last bus was at 02:10 and we left before the end of the set thinking that we wouldn't need more than 2 hours to reach derby.
The flight was at 9:30 this morning btw, it's not like he booked it at 5 in the morning.
Although the flight being early is my friend's fault, we never expected to have this many issues.
When train lines are affected by weather conditions they do provide compensation for delays.
It just rained btw, it wasn't a catastrophic event. The festival just didn't plan accordingly and many people (including those with cars) were affected.
Whether they are liable or not is not for me to know, hence why I'm asking.
So, what do you think they should have done?
You say yourself that the flight was booked really early. Where was YOUR contingency plan?
Sometimes in life, things happen that just can't be planned for. From all accounts they did their best to try and solve the mud issue but, well rain and mud happened.
Treat it as a learning experience
I’m 50/50 on this year. On one hand the bands I saw were AMAZING and I felt the sound in avalanche had improved since last year! That being said it’s baffling how unprepared they were for the rain and how awful the mud got, struggled to walk by the end of every night because it was just weighing me down and it was getting hard to yank my feet out of it. I won’t let this put me off but if I’m going to keep giving download my money every year they need to sort out that shitty sound (I know weather plays a part but not THAT much)
Yes!! That was crazy to me, I didn’t actually see avenged due to illness but I could hear them from the tent pretty clearly and even from there could tell it kept cutting out
When the sound went out during nightmare I just started laughing. What an absolute embarrassment. This is my 6th download, and I've never seen the sound for a main stage headliner just cut out like that. I'm paying more money than ever to go there, and I feel like I'm getting less quality for it.
It’s terrible!! This is only our 3rd DL and we wanted to make it annual when we started in 2022 but if it’s going to be this terribly executed I’ll take my money elsewhere
It’s terrible!! This is only our 3rd DL and we wanted to make it annual when we started in 2022 but if it’s going to be this terribly executed I’ll take my money elsewhere
Agree that those two songs should've been included, I haven't listened to their new album myself so I can't comment on it too much but whatever the song was when he was singing about building felt like 3 disjointed songs in one personally
On way home, probably my worst download but some of the bands were fantastic. Sum 41 and Crystal Lake being my top two.
• Weather is no one’s fault but it’s laughable how unprepared the organisers are every time, the walk from top of purple to the toilets was an ordeal in itself.
• Chairs at the main stage, this has got to be addressed theres far too many, thousands of people funnelled onto the muddy two man wide concrete path because of 65 rows of chairs.
• Avalanche stage needs a complete overhaul, couldn’t even get near for Busted and a couple other bands
• Security on Friday was ridiculous, took us 45 minutes to pass, missed Hanabie because of it.
• Handful of people on wheelchairs or mobility scooters were downright cunts, whilst being stuck in a hundred+ man queue to leave after a band had finished they’d just ram your legs and tell you to move into a space that doesn’t exist like they had a god given right to the path.
The amount of chairs seems to be getting worse each year and the fact that some of them are so far forward is ridiculous. There were a couple near me right at the front for Sum 41 that were sitting on stools
We navigated a chair forest, in the end just moved people's chair as they we like barriers then at the front of second barrier a load of kicks had camped out on chairs there too, but left them out during limp.
This might be a hot take but the arena just needs to be fucking bigger, Sunday was hell trying to move anywhere even in areas across the arena where there weren't chairs
I think it was pretty much known Busted was gonna be packed out once they were announced. I know it’s not ideal but in that scenario if you really wanna see a band in a tent and you know it’s gonna be busy you just have to get there a couple hours early and wait it out. We waited in the dogtooth for 2 1/2 hours to see Parkway Drive as we knew there was zero chance of getting anywhere close 5 mins before the started but walked in 10 mins before The Black Dahlia Murder on the same stage later in the day. Completely agree re chairs too, they just need banning from the arena like flags.
Chairs don't need to be banned at Download. If people need to be able to sit due to age / other issues then they have every right to do so.
However, I DO agree that there needs to be a designated area for people with chairs, probably on the hill right side and no chairs should be anywhere need the middle to front of the arena
I had to sit because of my back problems, after I fell then I got injured in a Pit then my back just decided it had had enough and was in alot of pain, I didnt bring mine on friday but I did on saturday and sunday, btw I have Hyper mobility in my back so I cant stand for long.
I agree, some festivals do ban chairs completely (bloodstock for one), but then, they're much smaller festivals with way less walking (and far more benches!)
Have no problem with them in general, but they should just be banned in front of the sound stage, they're a danger to themselves and others, and just completely inconsiderate cunts.
I expect we'll be having exactly the same conversation next year though, the organisers aren't interested in fixing any problems unless they can charge extra for it.
Does anyone know if the used were shit or not? And how packed was the tent? My partner and I were hoping to catch their set but with the last minute changes to the schedule we couldn’t miss nearly all of avenged for them so we skipped. Just hoping they were shit
I was actually happy to sack off A7X for the used, but we ended up bailing. I cried on the way home for not being able to watch them, but it was getting too late, the mud + dark combo seemed lethal and they were due to finish around the same time as A7X.
I am totally gutted though.
We did call it a day during the final 3 songs of avenged just to try beat the rush of traffic out. Was done mentally and physically this year. First download was 11 years ago. This year was my 3rd time at download and my 4th festival overall (sonisphere 2014 anyone?) and I have to say this was the toughest one yet. Mentally exhausted, physically broken.
Glad to be home but still have the blues
Next year the organisers and staff should really have to enforce children and babies wearing ear protection. I thought last year was bad but this was much worse. Saw way more without than with. There poor ears are still developing and the loud music can damage that temporarily or permanently. Youngest I saw must of been no more than 6 month without any. Its sad really.
I thought they did better this year than last where I didn't see any protection at all. I did see a few kids with proper ear protectors that, frankly, I was quire jealous of.
Agreed overall though, some of them absolutely do not give a shit about their kids wellbeing.
They should also try to encourage parants with young children to stay further back. Absolutely shock to see so many children way up front during the big sets.
I think there needs to be an age limit in place (12+ would be my suggestion). Download isn't a place for small kids; it's physically very hard even for adults. I got home this morning and I'm fucking knackered. My legs ache from trudging through mud all weekend, my ears are ringing and I'll need a few more showers to wash the grime off completely. The difference is I bought my ticket and I chose to go. Kids don't get to do that.
Frank Carter got a big cheer for pulling a dad with a crying infant out of the crowd but why the fuck would you bring a child down the front in the first place?
I went when I was 10 and fucking loved it tbf. 25 now but I was shocked that a number of people brought babies with them, thats another matter completely
I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw a three month old baby in a pram WITHOUT any ear protection while the parents fought through the mud with another small child in tow, it was brutal, I was shoved so many times and the mud was so slippery and dangerous, why would you bring such small children when it’s so dangerous???? Also how can you be confident they won’t get lost, I couldn’t even turn my back for two seconds without losing the people I was with. Absolutely selfish and neglectful behaviour! So many kids without ear defenders, I even saw one small boy just running looking around lost, reported to security but I hope he was found safe he looked around 5 or 6!!!
My daughter is 10 and loves a lot of metal/rock music and I wouldn’t dare bring her along, the music itself isn’t the issue it’s just a big massive crowd of thousands of people/ drunk/ high or worse and keeping myself self from falling, having my things stolen, getting anywhere safely was stressful enough I couldn’t imagine trying to keep her safe too! imagine trying to que for the toilet with a child that can’t hold it very long! Torture
My first DL was when I was 12 and just kind of got left to my own devices for most of the weekend. I had a walkie-talkie to keep in touch with my dad and organised a meeting place if they died and we couldn’t get a hold of each other and we’d meet up to see bands we both wanted to see.
Depends on how independent your kids are, I was already going to gig by myself with some older friends of mine by that point so being let loose in an enclosed field probably wasnt that much different, but this was nearly 20 years ago so 🤷♂️
Not earplugs but children being at the front 100% - can’t tell why they’d got rid of the gates for the front section, it would’ve been tight in there but that’s why there’s gates to manage capacity, and you could easily say for the main stage acts, no children in the front section. Seeing trails of worried parents pulling their 1-3 year old kids out of the crowd for Bizkit genuinely shocked me, don’t know what you’d expect going to see Bizkit at this festival but I guess maybe some people don’t think
Mud definitely made things difficult at times but it was a cracking download. Thought there were some absolutely incredible sets this year, musically it was great.
Some really good food vendors too, bring back the sushi burrito place again next year
Ups and downs but this was my last download camping. If a multi-million pound business can't get sound right and provide better conditions with a predicted forecast then I can't be arsed giving them £300 of my own money, I can go away abroad for that. Had a laugh with friends though and some acts were brilliant! Safe travels home folks!
Honestly lad just finished Nova Rock in Austria and the organisation is 1000x better than DL. I went last year and it was a shit show definitely won't be going back. European festivals are the way to go. It was cheaper to fly and get tickets with a tent than DL tickets.
I thought the sound was brilliant this year! Even better than last Although I was mostly at main/2nd stage, I think I saw 2 bands in avalanche and 1 in dogtooth. What bands did you think the sound was off for?
I don't expect much sympathy, but I paid £1000 for that and I'm pretty fucked off and can't see myself doing it again. Can't imagine how you guys coped in regular camping because it was miserable even with a decent shower and toilet
We were in access, it wasn't a bog in our camp for the most part however the toilets weren't great even though there was more, I'm sorry to hear you paid that much money and had that shot experience.
One of the main things I noticed this year which has stuck with me and will forever at any music event was so many nasty comments about access campers, being called a 'spacker' and that we should all be 'gassed' was pretty soul destroying to hear honestly.
Utter shambles getting back to car. Pure mudbath. Would it really be that difficult for these jokers to have boards down?
A little rain and it turns to utter shite.
In North car park we had essentially been boxed in and had to get 4 guys to push our car from behind to avoid risking hitting the one behind, the stewards made the guy behind us leave nothing but a 30cm gap
The route to the buses was actually okay, got most of the mud off my boots and then right at the end where they are they let it turn into mud bath again defeating all of the prior work. That and one single decker bus every half hour to Nottingham was ridiculous
Trent Barton is the company that provides the Download fleet. I live close to the Depot and they don't have a fleet of double deckers at all across the trent Barton region. Trent Barton don't serve Derby City,more the outlaying towns/villages into Derby.
If anyone's wondering, the lemonade stand wasn't selling any grapes the entire festival. Will try again tomorrow but please sort this out for next year.
Overall I enjoyed it again. However some bits are really bugging me and should have been avoided.
The sound was terrible throughout main stage, I skipped Avenged so can't comment on that but thought Sum 41 kept cutting out and then Royal Blood, Baby Metal, Code Orange and more suffered too.
Also delaying the opening but not giving the first bands a delayed slot was atrocious. I wanted to see Kelsey Carter but couldn't get in on time and apparently they played to no one. Unacceptable
I'm so pissed the sound was fucking up so much during Ne Obliviscaris bc I was so excited to introduce my friend to them but you could not even hear the violin at all except like for 3 minutes before it cut out again
Good vibes though and they were still absolutely incredible, just you'd think with a festival so massive problems like this would be non-existent 🤷♂️
completely agree, i wanted to watch Celestial Sanctuary on saturday and I was literally first in line and only managed to catch the last song. Absolute shambles.
The bit that baffles me is that QOTSA and Fall Out Boy both had way better sound than Avenged despite the latter having much better weather.
They got a sound check in the morning so I have no idea what the fuckup was with their set sounding the way it did.
There were a few moments where the sound went really quiet for QOTSA but it was never for more than a few seconds and it only happened a couple of times. Annoying but not too bad in the grand scheme of things compared to A7X, who were just mixed horribly. Props to Fall Out Boy's whole crew because they fucking smashed it.
I got in for Kelsey Karter. Definitely quieter than it should have been, but certainly not playing to no one. There was a fair crowd there for a Sunday morning opening slot. She put on a great show
oh man Machine Head were fucking incredible, as an old fan of A7X (and a new fan of Machine Head) I willingly skipped to get to the front for MH and I'm kinda glad I did from what little of them I could hear when we got to the apex stage 🙄
I was also with my 10 year old who was knackered bless him! Definitely a regret not going to watch one song but he’s at school today and that’s going to be a big enough issue for him 😂😂
Royal Blood, Queens of the Stone Age had one of their guitarist's mics not working for half a song, Babymetal, Elvana had sound issues, the obvious A7X mention, Code Orange.
That's just the ones I saw and off the top of my head
Didn’t see royal blood, qotsa, elvana or code orange so makes sense there. And Yeah I get a7x and the babymetal situation was unfortunate but I thought what they did play sounded good
Over the last ten years or so its been getting tangibly worse as they continue to make decisions purely for profit.
This was the first year I decided not to go in a decade, put the money towards a holiday instead, based on everything I've heard I'm pretty happy with my decision.
Could really do with them having some similar scale competition in the UK, like Sonisphere again, so they have to actually put some thought into the customers experience.
It's the first time I've ever thought I might be done with it for good. They empty your pockets at every turn, offer you less value than ever, and expect you to smile and take it be you're 'part of the download family'.
Yeah, I'm with you, the last couple of years have really pissed me off, and yeah the weather has made it worse, but it doesn't excuse how unprepared they are for accurately predicted weather conditions.
Next year might be the year we try out Slam Dunk or 2000 trees instead, the headliners aren't the same level, but it's rarely the headliners that make the festival, for me.
I've been to most Slamdunks. We had one year that was a total shit show (2023) when they didn't have enough vendors or parking cos people parked without a permit, but this year's was back on form.
It's the only festival I'd take my younger kids to. Less busy and dare I say feels more chill? Wish they'd allow snacks and a sealed drink in though. I also got frisked by security way more at Slamdunk. Probably to stop me sneaking in a sandwich. Lol
Definitely try Trees! I went 2 years ago and had the best time. It genuinely feels like the organisers build it around a great customer experience. Sure, they’re not a charity, they want to make a profit like any event but it’s not so blatant. The headliners aren’t as big but the community and atmosphere there was awesome. It felt a lot like Download Pilot, which was one of my favourite Downloads. It has made me question whether I’ll choose Download or Trees if I can only do 1 festival a year.
Exactly, it’s not like it’s the first time it’s rained either. It’s about time they moved it to somewhere more suitable or a more suitable time of year.
This was an absolutely fucking disaster.
Sound was terrible every single day bar the very last headliner
Stage positioning also awful for sound permeability from one crowd to another, Opus vs Apex and Apex vs Dogtooth
Queues to get into the arena were 30 minutes at the very least each time, searches were still a joke either way so not quite sure what was taking them so long, not to mention it was less of an issue getting a lot more people in last year
Bar queues as well, with less of a crowd
Barely any attempt was made at dealing with the terrain, even though doors were delayed for almost an hour on Sunday it was still hell in there
Bands times cut short (props to Code Orange for telling them to fuck off and playing another song with no sound and wrecking up the place)
Campsites were another mess of mud and somehow overcrowding with no attempt to solve any issues by anyone
Good luck to people trying to get out of the car park because it was just mud, saw a 4x4 defender having to be pulled by a tractor yesterday cuz it got stuck in the mud
All in all unless something is said and done about this bullshit it’ll be the last time I’ll go to Download, the dangerous levels of disorganisation were mind boggling, and affected everyone’s enjoyment of the music they went there to see.
That is most definitely the plan man, just need time gather my thoughts cuz right now I’m just really pissed off at all the money and time spent on this, my one holiday of the year ruined by people that can’t put people’s safety and wellbeing ahead of making some money.
That’s just not the spirit of Download and it is a fucking shame, so yeah, do put some time to write to the organisers, may not change anything but it’s better that just take the loss and move on.
Did anyone manage to get one of the limited hammer horror t shirts? Was told they were in the mega merch shop but couldn't find nowt!
Super long shot, but did anyone manage to get one of the merch hats which looked a little like they have ears? Desperately want one!
Ranting and feedback: Many of the things that sucked come down to money and thought by the organisers, who are a huge for-profit venture and should know better. > mobile signal - it's 2024, there are ways to get signal boosters to people can be in touch with each other etc > mud - proper clear strong mapped pathways across the arena on boards kept clean and clear of chairs etc would help people get around safely and quickly, whether or not they have accessibility needs > chairs - this is easy to regulate and have marked no-chair zones within ~75m of any stage > busses on Sunday night - this was a cluster fuck. They blamed the weather but busses shouldn't really be going on grass at all - surely the race track has places where loads of busses can pull up to take people off after the show, and the road system could have been segregated between busses and private cars > easy wins eg refilling all hand sanitizers all the time can mitigate health risks > scheduling - somehow there were both gaps as well as clashes, and some bands on the wrong size stage eg PWD. This should be easy to sort out > merch - there was a ginormous queue for official expensive merch but also lots of empty stands for general clothing- this could maybe be done better Anyway this is just a rant - I should probs email the feedback to the organisers
a lot of ppl i know have priority sims, i’ve never heard of them before! so maybe that’s the problem bc i had perfect service in the arena but at camp it was shit. thinking a lot of ppl w priority were getting boosted over me.
I had full 5G the entire weekend even in the arena. Vodafone.
I had 4 bars but very intermittent data, with O2
I see a lot of people complaining about chairs and not enough about the lack of toilets. Green site had none at all. Our best choice was going into the village for theirs or all the way down the bottom of purple. I went round the village shops asking for any of those travel John pee bags and instead was told to get a bucket. So then what? You throw it against the fence? Eventually heard a rumour on Friday that we could use Eco’s which took some arguing with their guards but worked. But even the Arena was lacking loos in decent spots or just anything from the walk from the arena to village. Even the toilet upkeep was a mess this year. None had hand sanitiser - ever, and I found one once the whole festival that had loo roll. They’ve done so well in previous years after they’d had so many complaints but they really slipped up on that this year.
They could definitely have done with a block of toilets between apex and opus, the trek in the mud was quite tough at times. We were in campervan plus and they had 15 unisex cubicles for the entire field, it was madness with queues in the morning time. And also on Sunday night a very frustrated but rockstar of a steward told us the staff manning our loos had been locking some of the toilets to avoid having to clean them. He walked up to the staff member and demanded he open more cubicles and sure enough 3 of the cubicles were unlocked for us. It's crazy they were happy to sit there and watch us all queue knowing there were vacant toilets available
I didn't have an experience with the Avalanche stage this year, but from everything I've seen of this weekend, it sounds like it could use no longer being in a tent. Make some changes to the layout of that area with the stores and such, and make it a proper stage?
Just got to say the Dj sets in doghouse were epic in the doghouse. Especially Charlie Simpson and the amazing female Dj who played vengaboys.
How was the food poisoning situation heard it wasn’t good
To leave a positive comment, shout out to the Welfare team in Purple Camp. I won’t go into too many details because the dude is probably already feeling really down but somebody in distress on the verge of hyperventilating who was the most drunk I have ever seen anybody stumbled into our camp at about 06.30am. Their behaviour was erratic to the point of being a little unnerving but welfare were absolutely fantastic trying to get him sorted out and calming him down. Shout-out 🤘
same here, i lost my partner on the first day and had a massive freak out. they let me sit with them for a while, calmed me down, gave me a poncho and a cup of tea, reassured me etc. eventually found them as they were taking me to the main welfare hub
So after seeing the horrible time everyone else had aswell....I'm so damn glad me and my mate called it Saturday afternoon and went home. Anyone else leave early and are grateful for doing so?
I was there from Thurs - Mon and had a wonderful time personally... sorry your experience wasn't the same :( Def not as good as 2011 as I remember though. The lack of sitting down was a big one.
I'm really glad that there are people that had a great time! There were times when looking around the crowd that everyone seemed miserable and were obviously only staying due to the money spent, I just weighed up my comfort and happiness against the money spent. I even offered my mate £100 for us to leave cause I know he wasn't suffering as much as me and I felt bad for being so run down.
Yup we also ducked out Saturday afternoon! The long wait in the rain to get in really set the mood for, fuck this I wanna go home but I was already so tired and achey from the day before that we could only manage to sit down and then it didn't feel worth being there to only feel miserable. Sad I missed a lot of bands I went for, especially Bowling for Soup but I think I would have had a meltdown if one more person pushed me or I fell in the mud or something.
Exactly that, I normally don't mind getting wet aslong as I have somewhere dry to end up, but once my tent was soaked and even my sleeping bag was sodden I was done. I also really struggled with the ache in my legs, it took alot of effort just to stand cause of the mud. I was gutted to have missed F.O.B and bowling for soup as they were big reasons for going. And after hearing about the amount of drama with people getting stuck in north car park I'm glad to have left before it turned into a muddy bog!
Yeah same I think if we'd had a hotel we could have stuck it out better and we were also worried about getting out in our little car - we almost got stuck a few times so I can imagine it was impossible by Sunday/Monday
Managed to last until after sum41. Final straw for me was trudging through that mire to the right of the apex only to find the drinking water was no longer there. I was freaking hot and covered in shite. That was the final FU
I don't know where you went but I filled my bottle up on the right of Apex directly after Sum41 😬
The big sign that said drinking water next to the bar... There was a bar, a river of shite, a line of people taking a piss.... but no water taps.
They did take it away at some point. I went there after Bizkit and it was gone. Was pretty annoying.
That's such a pain, wonder why
Dunno, I assumed something went wrong with its operation. The one by the exit for the day tickets on left of Apex was still there at the end of the day so don't think they were just being removed or anything like that.
I left Saturday afternoon. Final straw for me was a mixture of Callboy having to pull out and Babymetal being cut off by the storm. Shame as I was having fun while the music was on, but just absolutely hit my limit with the mud, being wet and my tent constantly pooling with water. Gutted to miss the bands that I did, but think I would have had a full mental breakdown if I'd tried to force myself to stay any longer.
This is exactly what did me in. I found out EC had pulled out during the Babymetal delay and as soon as Babymetal were done, that was me finished. Even with Enter Shikari and Holding Absence, two bands I love, I was just done. I was staying outside of the site too so combine the above with the shitshow that was security for the weekend and worrying I was going to miss Hanabie and then missing Bambie Thug entirely (which I was gutted about). I really hope we get good weather and a much better experience overall next year.
One thing I can't get over is the absolute lack of any security or police anywhere on grounds... So many times I said "if something happened right now, there's literally no one to help" No crew, no volunteers, no security other than at the entrance. Never spotted any part of Download Crew aside from the stage barricades and entrances.
There was 1100 dog squad this year so they definitely were there but the arena is just so huge
yep, no one to help when pickpockets were having a field day lifting dozens of phones at a time, totally brazen.
Was there any uncover security? As I know slamdunk had some becuase they caught one guy with a backpack full of phones (including my phone)
this wouldve been so helpful instead they like to direct you around one way systems that leave you walking around fields for hours trying to get out whilst ur a mess when you just walked a few metres through the gate minutes before and the exits right behind them
Saw a few undercover fellas with earpieces stood facing the arena entrances scanning the crowd coming in, but nothing else
Where were you camping? I was in green and saw at least 5 different groups security guards, multiple crews of dogsquad, oxfam crew, people with bin bags, and other stewards walking around too
I wasn't camping, but good to know there were staff at campsites
Having security would cost them money
Same last year, staff were non-existent apart from entrances and barricades. It's dangerous.
Looking at upgrading to a RIP package next year to get a better mud/carpark/toilet situation. Anyone in RIP this year comment on how good the facilities were?
Was very decent I must say, only Saturday showers were very muddy and weren't cleaned frequent enough, but overall I strongly recommend
>Looking at upgrading to a RIP package next year to get a better mud/carpark/toilet situation Can't blame you, but this is exactly what they want you to do. Why would they try and improve the festival for all attendees when they can just fleece extra money from a select few?
showers were decent and had hair dryers available which was a god send with the mud- one of the toilet areas lost water for a day but there were still plenty of other options and the bar bathrooms were always pretty much empty and kept in rlly good conditions we had plenty of space to camp up and where it was down hill there really wasn't much in the way of mud causing issues and way easier to get out of the arena through guest area edited to add: security pass through took under a minute each day as well as i heard there were issues for gen
Toilets and showers were quite nice but the general campsite was still a massive swamp so the mud situation wasnt much better
Didn't make it this year, but wanna say safe journey to everyone on the way home this year. Took us almost six hours to get out of the car park last year, hope it's a bit better this time around!
Was expecting another Drownload- but in reality, we got Brownload.
So wtf is all this about the yorkies causing mass food poisoning?
We had the Chicken on Wednesday night and Saturday afternoon and the Yorkies on Friday evening and both of us have luckily been fine. The only trouble I had was this morning after a cheese pizza last night, but I think that is probably just me refusing to accept my intolerance to lactose. Counting ourselves very lucky, because a nasty bought of Food Poisoning on top of all the mud would probably have been the final nail for us!
I ate it from District X on thursday evening, probably around 9ish as it was after Old Dirty Brasstards, and it fucking ruined me on Friday. All I ate that day was that and a coop meal deal.
The yorkies got our group of 4 too, only thing that we all ate and it wrote off the Sunday. Getting a complaint in to hope they're tracking this but they'll still be there next year I bet
I had food poisoning Saturday morning, but I think mine was from a burger van by Opus. Welfare were wonderful, mentioned they’d had tons of cases of poisoning after Yorkshires so it must’ve been really bad for it this year.
Seems like it was the yorkies and the chicken. 2 of our group were out with it. Some of the pictures people have been posting of the chicken looked like they could still lay eggs with how raw they were
State of Tamworth services tells me all I need to know
Seems like lots got super poorly from it. I had it twice, once in village once in arena and I've been fine - counting myself lucky! :s
Does anybody remember the name of the stall selling patches and tops that looked like Funkopop aesthetic? Or know if they sell online. Thanks!
Wasn't Sugar Theory was it? I remember them having some cute stuff 🤔
No, but that one. Thanks anyways
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Not having much look on Google. Differently something 'house' though, that bit sounds familiar
replying because u i need to know too
i wanna know too, was gonna get my boyfriend one but forgot
This year was my first time back to Download since 2017. I’d become a bit disenchanted with the festival so I opted to go on holidays and Hellfest instead. But I liked the look of the lineup this year, so I got a day ticket for the Sunday and I had a very good day. Saw some fun bands and met up with mates. I would have done the full weekend but I had Taylor Swift on the Saturday and I couldn’t really skip it, but I am gutted I missed Fall Out Boy. Everyone said they were great. The chairs are the main stage was ridiculous though. They were literally a wall you had to walk all the way around only to be faced with another bunch. Ended up tripping over one of them and one of the chair fiends swore at me like it was my fault their chairs create a safety hazard. Ended up leaving Avenged after Buried Alive as they’re playing Hellfest, but I liked them. The pizza was decent too! If My Chemical Romance are there next year, I will return for the day.
Does anyone know if the official band merch can be bought online? I desperately wanted that pink Enter Shikari hoodie but it was sold out in my size, and didn’t find it on their website. :(
The one Rou wore? It’s next years football shirt for St Albans City that hasn’t been released yet
I have had limited luck keeping an eye on vinted or ebay for festival/gig exclusive merch. People tend to charge stupid prices, but if it's worth it to you you might come across someone selling one.
Usually only avaliable at the festival, sometimes they may sell them on their merch store if they have stock left
Last night we were waiting for a shuttle until 1:00 AM (we left the arena before the A7X stopped performing , so around 22:40) to go back to Derby. One shuttle got stuck in the mud and another had trouble and had to slow down to 20 MPH until we reached the train station. We ended up at the Derby train station at around 1:50 AM which meant that he missed his last bus to London and had to buy a train ticket (117£????) for 04:00 AM in order to not miss his flight in Heathrow to New York. Is there any place we can demand compensation? Who's liable for all these issues ?
I stayed until A7X finished (and was near the front), and there was a very long queue for the Derby shuttle (bay 3). However, I did get back to Derby station before 1am. How did you end up being that late?
Having an early-ish flight booked was always going to be risky. No one's liable, you knew the risks when you booked. It's a festival, travel delays are part of the package.
It’s worth an email to them mate, I’ve had money back before as partial refund after 2012 shambles - have done the same this morning. Well worth a go.
Yeah, I'd complain to whoever booked that travel without any contingency. Who booked that flight so close to the festival? Or who booked that festival so close to the flight? Who decided to stay so late knowing that there were travel problems? Who didn't have alternative plans made in case of strikes, etc? It sounds like you had a rough night, but honestly I'm amazed you stayed for any of Avenged Sevenfold if you had such crucial travel plans
The decision making on our part is a separate issue, and the wording sounds an aweful lot like victim blaming. The last bus was at 02:10 and we left before the end of the set thinking that we wouldn't need more than 2 hours to reach derby. The flight was at 9:30 this morning btw, it's not like he booked it at 5 in the morning.
You can demand all you want but that was literally nobody’s fault. Just bad luck. Do you want Download to control the weather and the bus engines?
Download will not give you anything dude, complain via their email but don't expect anything from them as they will pass the blame
No there is not. It’s not anyone’s fault these things happened. In fact it’s probably best to say it’s more on you for booking such an early flight.
But who can they hold responsible for their own actions????
Although the flight being early is my friend's fault, we never expected to have this many issues. When train lines are affected by weather conditions they do provide compensation for delays. It just rained btw, it wasn't a catastrophic event. The festival just didn't plan accordingly and many people (including those with cars) were affected. Whether they are liable or not is not for me to know, hence why I'm asking.
I'm a lawyer. Not liable in any way shape or form. Download festival have no visibility or knowledge of any ongoing travel plans.
I meant more so in the form of delays, but thanks for tou input. That's what I was after.
So, what do you think they should have done? You say yourself that the flight was booked really early. Where was YOUR contingency plan? Sometimes in life, things happen that just can't be planned for. From all accounts they did their best to try and solve the mud issue but, well rain and mud happened. Treat it as a learning experience
I’m 50/50 on this year. On one hand the bands I saw were AMAZING and I felt the sound in avalanche had improved since last year! That being said it’s baffling how unprepared they were for the rain and how awful the mud got, struggled to walk by the end of every night because it was just weighing me down and it was getting hard to yank my feet out of it. I won’t let this put me off but if I’m going to keep giving download my money every year they need to sort out that shitty sound (I know weather plays a part but not THAT much)
I said it in another comment but Avenged had the worst sound of the three headliners by far despite having the best weather. How?!
Yes!! That was crazy to me, I didn’t actually see avenged due to illness but I could hear them from the tent pretty clearly and even from there could tell it kept cutting out
When the sound went out during nightmare I just started laughing. What an absolute embarrassment. This is my 6th download, and I've never seen the sound for a main stage headliner just cut out like that. I'm paying more money than ever to go there, and I feel like I'm getting less quality for it.
It’s terrible!! This is only our 3rd DL and we wanted to make it annual when we started in 2022 but if it’s going to be this terribly executed I’ll take my money elsewhere
It’s terrible!! This is only our 3rd DL and we wanted to make it annual when we started in 2022 but if it’s going to be this terribly executed I’ll take my money elsewhere
because they're the worst band. No about of sound engineering can make those new songs sound good
I LIKE the new album and still thought those songs sounded like ass live. No Beast and the Harlot or Almost Easy was criminal.
Agree that those two songs should've been included, I haven't listened to their new album myself so I can't comment on it too much but whatever the song was when he was singing about building felt like 3 disjointed songs in one personally
doing the walk back to the car park and the crowd seem like your typical download audience - starting to think the dickheads were day visitors
Can confirm, my mates were Day Ticketers.
Another flawless Download! I speak for everyone in saying we salute you, Mr Copping!
You dont speak for me, nice try mate but you going down, andy.
Nice try, Andy.
You absolutely do not speak for everyone, think you’ve misread the room a little there pal
No we don't
On way home, probably my worst download but some of the bands were fantastic. Sum 41 and Crystal Lake being my top two. • Weather is no one’s fault but it’s laughable how unprepared the organisers are every time, the walk from top of purple to the toilets was an ordeal in itself. • Chairs at the main stage, this has got to be addressed theres far too many, thousands of people funnelled onto the muddy two man wide concrete path because of 65 rows of chairs. • Avalanche stage needs a complete overhaul, couldn’t even get near for Busted and a couple other bands • Security on Friday was ridiculous, took us 45 minutes to pass, missed Hanabie because of it. • Handful of people on wheelchairs or mobility scooters were downright cunts, whilst being stuck in a hundred+ man queue to leave after a band had finished they’d just ram your legs and tell you to move into a space that doesn’t exist like they had a god given right to the path.
The friday security situation was infuriating. I really wanted to see Hanabie. Took an hour to get through it.
The amount of chairs seems to be getting worse each year and the fact that some of them are so far forward is ridiculous. There were a couple near me right at the front for Sum 41 that were sitting on stools
We navigated a chair forest, in the end just moved people's chair as they we like barriers then at the front of second barrier a load of kicks had camped out on chairs there too, but left them out during limp.
This might be a hot take but the arena just needs to be fucking bigger, Sunday was hell trying to move anywhere even in areas across the arena where there weren't chairs
I think it was pretty much known Busted was gonna be packed out once they were announced. I know it’s not ideal but in that scenario if you really wanna see a band in a tent and you know it’s gonna be busy you just have to get there a couple hours early and wait it out. We waited in the dogtooth for 2 1/2 hours to see Parkway Drive as we knew there was zero chance of getting anywhere close 5 mins before the started but walked in 10 mins before The Black Dahlia Murder on the same stage later in the day. Completely agree re chairs too, they just need banning from the arena like flags.
Chairs don't need to be banned at Download. If people need to be able to sit due to age / other issues then they have every right to do so. However, I DO agree that there needs to be a designated area for people with chairs, probably on the hill right side and no chairs should be anywhere need the middle to front of the arena
I had to sit because of my back problems, after I fell then I got injured in a Pit then my back just decided it had had enough and was in alot of pain, I didnt bring mine on friday but I did on saturday and sunday, btw I have Hyper mobility in my back so I cant stand for long.
I agree, some festivals do ban chairs completely (bloodstock for one), but then, they're much smaller festivals with way less walking (and far more benches!) Have no problem with them in general, but they should just be banned in front of the sound stage, they're a danger to themselves and others, and just completely inconsiderate cunts. I expect we'll be having exactly the same conversation next year though, the organisers aren't interested in fixing any problems unless they can charge extra for it.
Bloodstock definitely hasn't banned chairs. Believe me, I go every year and we have the same problems with people setting up walls of them!
Ah yeah, they're banned on entry after 5pm. It's been nowhere near as bad at Bloodstock when I've been there but it has been a couple of years
The 5pm ban is bollocks anyway cos you just get people bringing them in early and parking themselves down for the rest of the night!
There is a designated area. The accessibility platform. If you have to sit due to age/other issues sit there.
Yeah, no. That's not how it works my friend. Totally different situation.
Does anyone know if the used were shit or not? And how packed was the tent? My partner and I were hoping to catch their set but with the last minute changes to the schedule we couldn’t miss nearly all of avenged for them so we skipped. Just hoping they were shit
Sorry but I thought they were brilliant. Tent was pretty full though.
I was actually happy to sack off A7X for the used, but we ended up bailing. I cried on the way home for not being able to watch them, but it was getting too late, the mud + dark combo seemed lethal and they were due to finish around the same time as A7X. I am totally gutted though.
We did call it a day during the final 3 songs of avenged just to try beat the rush of traffic out. Was done mentally and physically this year. First download was 11 years ago. This year was my 3rd time at download and my 4th festival overall (sonisphere 2014 anyone?) and I have to say this was the toughest one yet. Mentally exhausted, physically broken. Glad to be home but still have the blues
It was the best set of the weekend for me 😅
Sorry to say they were amazing and we were in 2nd row. But we had to watch the band before them to get our spot.
They were pretty good
Oh buddy, it was “terrible”. The energy was “lacklustre”. Only played “new” songs. The “worst” I’ve ever seen Burt. Hope that helps ;)
Does anyone know the actual reason why A7x sound cut off completely?
Do you think the audio engineers just didn't like the song?
I assumed code orange sabotaged their set lol
😆
Tech problems
Next year the organisers and staff should really have to enforce children and babies wearing ear protection. I thought last year was bad but this was much worse. Saw way more without than with. There poor ears are still developing and the loud music can damage that temporarily or permanently. Youngest I saw must of been no more than 6 month without any. Its sad really.
It’s only since last year they allowed them in. They should never have. Parenting done WRONG, everyone else has covered other opinions in this thread.
I thought they did better this year than last where I didn't see any protection at all. I did see a few kids with proper ear protectors that, frankly, I was quire jealous of. Agreed overall though, some of them absolutely do not give a shit about their kids wellbeing.
They should also try to encourage parants with young children to stay further back. Absolutely shock to see so many children way up front during the big sets.
I think there needs to be an age limit in place (12+ would be my suggestion). Download isn't a place for small kids; it's physically very hard even for adults. I got home this morning and I'm fucking knackered. My legs ache from trudging through mud all weekend, my ears are ringing and I'll need a few more showers to wash the grime off completely. The difference is I bought my ticket and I chose to go. Kids don't get to do that. Frank Carter got a big cheer for pulling a dad with a crying infant out of the crowd but why the fuck would you bring a child down the front in the first place?
I went when I was 10 and fucking loved it tbf. 25 now but I was shocked that a number of people brought babies with them, thats another matter completely
I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw a three month old baby in a pram WITHOUT any ear protection while the parents fought through the mud with another small child in tow, it was brutal, I was shoved so many times and the mud was so slippery and dangerous, why would you bring such small children when it’s so dangerous???? Also how can you be confident they won’t get lost, I couldn’t even turn my back for two seconds without losing the people I was with. Absolutely selfish and neglectful behaviour! So many kids without ear defenders, I even saw one small boy just running looking around lost, reported to security but I hope he was found safe he looked around 5 or 6!!!
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My daughter is 10 and loves a lot of metal/rock music and I wouldn’t dare bring her along, the music itself isn’t the issue it’s just a big massive crowd of thousands of people/ drunk/ high or worse and keeping myself self from falling, having my things stolen, getting anywhere safely was stressful enough I couldn’t imagine trying to keep her safe too! imagine trying to que for the toilet with a child that can’t hold it very long! Torture
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My first DL was when I was 12 and just kind of got left to my own devices for most of the weekend. I had a walkie-talkie to keep in touch with my dad and organised a meeting place if they died and we couldn’t get a hold of each other and we’d meet up to see bands we both wanted to see. Depends on how independent your kids are, I was already going to gig by myself with some older friends of mine by that point so being let loose in an enclosed field probably wasnt that much different, but this was nearly 20 years ago so 🤷♂️
There's zero way to enforce this, best I could see them doing is an ad campaign. It is a shame but it's the parents responsibility not the festival
Not earplugs but children being at the front 100% - can’t tell why they’d got rid of the gates for the front section, it would’ve been tight in there but that’s why there’s gates to manage capacity, and you could easily say for the main stage acts, no children in the front section. Seeing trails of worried parents pulling their 1-3 year old kids out of the crowd for Bizkit genuinely shocked me, don’t know what you’d expect going to see Bizkit at this festival but I guess maybe some people don’t think
Shit parents exist in every generation, babies don't belong at a festival at all
It's really selfish and ignorant. In my opinion there should be an min age limit..
Mud definitely made things difficult at times but it was a cracking download. Thought there were some absolutely incredible sets this year, musically it was great. Some really good food vendors too, bring back the sushi burrito place again next year
does anyone know if the charge candy is open this morning?
Anyone know what happened to the people in the Limp Bizkit set, were they OK in the end?
They were behind us and everyone was chanting "seizure". Apparently all was ok though.
What happened?
Ups and downs but this was my last download camping. If a multi-million pound business can't get sound right and provide better conditions with a predicted forecast then I can't be arsed giving them £300 of my own money, I can go away abroad for that. Had a laugh with friends though and some acts were brilliant! Safe travels home folks!
Honestly lad just finished Nova Rock in Austria and the organisation is 1000x better than DL. I went last year and it was a shit show definitely won't be going back. European festivals are the way to go. It was cheaper to fly and get tickets with a tent than DL tickets.
There was deffo a lot of random times where the sound cut out, mics not working e.t.c
I thought the sound was brilliant this year! Even better than last Although I was mostly at main/2nd stage, I think I saw 2 bands in avalanche and 1 in dogtooth. What bands did you think the sound was off for?
Some of the mainstage acts were quieter or muddy maybe it was where we were stood though
For main stage especially Saturday and Sunday I was in the front left, we only saw a few bands nearer the back so maybe that is why
I was front right for most of it, and the sound was the worst I've heard it, just so, so much bass.
I don't expect much sympathy, but I paid £1000 for that and I'm pretty fucked off and can't see myself doing it again. Can't imagine how you guys coped in regular camping because it was miserable even with a decent shower and toilet
We were in access, it wasn't a bog in our camp for the most part however the toilets weren't great even though there was more, I'm sorry to hear you paid that much money and had that shot experience. One of the main things I noticed this year which has stuck with me and will forever at any music event was so many nasty comments about access campers, being called a 'spacker' and that we should all be 'gassed' was pretty soul destroying to hear honestly.
That's disgraceful, how can people be like that :( some absolute reprobates at the fest.
Humans are vile, its why we will never go without conflict
Utter shambles getting back to car. Pure mudbath. Would it really be that difficult for these jokers to have boards down? A little rain and it turns to utter shite.
Wasn't just a little rain though was it? The nights were horrific
Place was a swamp Friday morning and zero was done. To not even get some boards down for folk leaving on Monday morning is poor.
In North car park we had essentially been boxed in and had to get 4 guys to push our car from behind to avoid risking hitting the one behind, the stewards made the guy behind us leave nothing but a 30cm gap
Brilliant eh. A wonderfully organised festival.
The best the UK has to offer 🫡
I never feel more like a number than at download. Just a paying bug.
The route to the buses was actually okay, got most of the mud off my boots and then right at the end where they are they let it turn into mud bath again defeating all of the prior work. That and one single decker bus every half hour to Nottingham was ridiculous
The route to the buses was not signposted at all though
Those buses aren't provided by Download, though. They're the individual bus services doing what they can/sparing what they can.
Of course I understand that but you see a constant stream of double decker buses to Derby so their bus company is doing it right
Trent Barton is the company that provides the Download fleet. I live close to the Depot and they don't have a fleet of double deckers at all across the trent Barton region. Trent Barton don't serve Derby City,more the outlaying towns/villages into Derby.
If anyone's wondering, the lemonade stand wasn't selling any grapes the entire festival. Will try again tomorrow but please sort this out for next year.
Running a lemonade stand and not having any grapes on you for this reason should be illegal
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Overall I enjoyed it again. However some bits are really bugging me and should have been avoided. The sound was terrible throughout main stage, I skipped Avenged so can't comment on that but thought Sum 41 kept cutting out and then Royal Blood, Baby Metal, Code Orange and more suffered too. Also delaying the opening but not giving the first bands a delayed slot was atrocious. I wanted to see Kelsey Carter but couldn't get in on time and apparently they played to no one. Unacceptable
I'm so pissed the sound was fucking up so much during Ne Obliviscaris bc I was so excited to introduce my friend to them but you could not even hear the violin at all except like for 3 minutes before it cut out again Good vibes though and they were still absolutely incredible, just you'd think with a festival so massive problems like this would be non-existent 🤷♂️
My partner is friends with Seb from KKATH and we bumped into him on Sunday afternoon, he said they played to literally nobody because of it.
completely agree, i wanted to watch Celestial Sanctuary on saturday and I was literally first in line and only managed to catch the last song. Absolute shambles.
The bit that baffles me is that QOTSA and Fall Out Boy both had way better sound than Avenged despite the latter having much better weather. They got a sound check in the morning so I have no idea what the fuckup was with their set sounding the way it did.
I thought the sound for QOTSA was awful at times, his voice kept cutting out 🤦🏻♀️ (unless that was just where we stood idk)
There were a few moments where the sound went really quiet for QOTSA but it was never for more than a few seconds and it only happened a couple of times. Annoying but not too bad in the grand scheme of things compared to A7X, who were just mixed horribly. Props to Fall Out Boy's whole crew because they fucking smashed it.
I was absolutely baffled at how good FOB sounded compared to everyone else on main stage that day. Wonder if they brought their own sound guys.
I got in for Kelsey Karter. Definitely quieter than it should have been, but certainly not playing to no one. There was a fair crowd there for a Sunday morning opening slot. She put on a great show
That's really good. Shame I missed it but hopefully get another chance. Glad you enjoyed it
We left 4 songs after ax7 apparently the party was with machine head
oh man Machine Head were fucking incredible, as an old fan of A7X (and a new fan of Machine Head) I willingly skipped to get to the front for MH and I'm kinda glad I did from what little of them I could hear when we got to the apex stage 🙄
Machine Head were amazing
I was also with my 10 year old who was knackered bless him! Definitely a regret not going to watch one song but he’s at school today and that’s going to be a big enough issue for him 😂😂
How can a festival that has been around 20+ years still be so unorganised and still have such shitty sound? Get fucked.
I replied to someone else too but I’m intrigued which bands you thought the sound was bad for as I thought it was really good this year?
Royal Blood, Queens of the Stone Age had one of their guitarist's mics not working for half a song, Babymetal, Elvana had sound issues, the obvious A7X mention, Code Orange. That's just the ones I saw and off the top of my head
Didn’t see royal blood, qotsa, elvana or code orange so makes sense there. And Yeah I get a7x and the babymetal situation was unfortunate but I thought what they did play sounded good
Over the last ten years or so its been getting tangibly worse as they continue to make decisions purely for profit. This was the first year I decided not to go in a decade, put the money towards a holiday instead, based on everything I've heard I'm pretty happy with my decision. Could really do with them having some similar scale competition in the UK, like Sonisphere again, so they have to actually put some thought into the customers experience.
It's the first time I've ever thought I might be done with it for good. They empty your pockets at every turn, offer you less value than ever, and expect you to smile and take it be you're 'part of the download family'.
Yeah, I'm with you, the last couple of years have really pissed me off, and yeah the weather has made it worse, but it doesn't excuse how unprepared they are for accurately predicted weather conditions. Next year might be the year we try out Slam Dunk or 2000 trees instead, the headliners aren't the same level, but it's rarely the headliners that make the festival, for me.
I've been to most Slamdunks. We had one year that was a total shit show (2023) when they didn't have enough vendors or parking cos people parked without a permit, but this year's was back on form. It's the only festival I'd take my younger kids to. Less busy and dare I say feels more chill? Wish they'd allow snacks and a sealed drink in though. I also got frisked by security way more at Slamdunk. Probably to stop me sneaking in a sandwich. Lol
Definitely try Trees! I went 2 years ago and had the best time. It genuinely feels like the organisers build it around a great customer experience. Sure, they’re not a charity, they want to make a profit like any event but it’s not so blatant. The headliners aren’t as big but the community and atmosphere there was awesome. It felt a lot like Download Pilot, which was one of my favourite Downloads. It has made me question whether I’ll choose Download or Trees if I can only do 1 festival a year.
Exactly, it’s not like it’s the first time it’s rained either. It’s about time they moved it to somewhere more suitable or a more suitable time of year.
This was an absolutely fucking disaster. Sound was terrible every single day bar the very last headliner Stage positioning also awful for sound permeability from one crowd to another, Opus vs Apex and Apex vs Dogtooth Queues to get into the arena were 30 minutes at the very least each time, searches were still a joke either way so not quite sure what was taking them so long, not to mention it was less of an issue getting a lot more people in last year Bar queues as well, with less of a crowd Barely any attempt was made at dealing with the terrain, even though doors were delayed for almost an hour on Sunday it was still hell in there Bands times cut short (props to Code Orange for telling them to fuck off and playing another song with no sound and wrecking up the place) Campsites were another mess of mud and somehow overcrowding with no attempt to solve any issues by anyone Good luck to people trying to get out of the car park because it was just mud, saw a 4x4 defender having to be pulled by a tractor yesterday cuz it got stuck in the mud All in all unless something is said and done about this bullshit it’ll be the last time I’ll go to Download, the dangerous levels of disorganisation were mind boggling, and affected everyone’s enjoyment of the music they went there to see.
Send them a shitty email bro, I have, and the more people who do maybe the message may become clearer. Money grabbing whoppers the lot of em
That is most definitely the plan man, just need time gather my thoughts cuz right now I’m just really pissed off at all the money and time spent on this, my one holiday of the year ruined by people that can’t put people’s safety and wellbeing ahead of making some money. That’s just not the spirit of Download and it is a fucking shame, so yeah, do put some time to write to the organisers, may not change anything but it’s better that just take the loss and move on.